People pray for peace and healing for the Middle East at the Dr. Burton E. Grossman International Conference Center on the University of the Incarnate Word campus.

People pray for peace and healing for the Middle East at the Dr. Burton E. Grossman International Conference Center on the University of the Incarnate Word campus.

Photo: Edward A. Ornelas / San Antonio Express-News

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Nazli Siddiqui, Director of the Muslim Cultural Heritage Society, (right) and others take part in a prayer for peace and healing for the Middle East Thursday July 24, 2014 at the Dr. Burton E. Grossman International Conference Center on the University of the Incarnate Word campus. less

Nazli Siddiqui, Director of the Muslim Cultural Heritage Society, (right) and others take part in a prayer for peace and healing for the Middle East Thursday July 24, 2014 at the Dr. Burton E. Grossman ... more

Photo: San Antonio Express-News

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Rabbi Mara Nathan, Senior Rabbi of Temple Beth-El, speaks during a prayer for peace and healing for the Middle East Thursday July 24, 2014 at the Dr. Burton E. Grossman International Conference Center on the University of the Incarnate Word campus. less

Rabbi Mara Nathan, Senior Rabbi of Temple Beth-El, speaks during a prayer for peace and healing for the Middle East Thursday July 24, 2014 at the Dr. Burton E. Grossman International Conference Center on the ... more

Photo: San Antonio Express-News

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Interfaith gathering prays for peace in the Middle East

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SAN ANTONIO — Inside a conference room at the University of the Incarnate Word, about 125 diverse religious clergy and lay people united in prayer for Middle East peace in light of the recent bloodshed between Israelis and Palestinians.

There were no soap boxes or finger-pointing.

The moment was for prayer, readings and song - in Hebrew, Arabic and English — and for listening to calls for divine solutions to end violence in the cherished Holy Land.

Catholic priests, nuns and rabbis. Sikhs, imams, Protestant ministers and Hindus. All in chairs circled around a table.

At one point, they took turns placing olive branches, pebbles and flowers into a basket as a wood recorder played a soft melody in the background.

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“I realize peace is not a privilege. It's a right to live in peace,” said Omar Husain, religion director at the Muslim Children Education and Civic Center, during the program. “This event helps restore our faith in humanity because we had a choice to gather here. And we are here to alleviate some of the suffering of people everywhere.”

The evening was the idea of Sister Martha Ann Kirk, a religious studies professor at UIW. She said she was moved by two sets of friends who, despite being on opposite sides of the conflict, expressed concern for each other's families who live near the combat area in Gaza.

“These ancient disputes and clashes are said to have their roots in religion,” she said. “Yet, when you listen to the ageless words of the Jewish, Muslim and Christian traditions, you come to realize that central to all our traditions is the idea of compassion toward the other.”

During the program, audience members were asked to write on slips of paper names and causes dear to them for the group to unite around in prayer.

Rabbi Mara Nathan, senior rabbi of Temple Beth-El, spoke of how peace is a shared value among religions and how the human cost of war is universal.

Playing a guitar, she led the group in a rendition of “Let There Be Peace On Earth” before they lit candles and lowered the lights in the room.

“All mankind is tied together. All life is interrelated.... Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. For some strange reason, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be — this is the interrelated structure of reality.”

Ray then asked that the audience pause and look into their neighbor's eyes “so deeply that you know the color of those eyes.”

“Aren't they beautiful? Are they not in essence the same?” she asked. “We are one. We look like many, but we are the spirit of the living God.”